Pages

Saturday, 3 August 2013

Seventh Day Adventist Church

Many moons ago, in the Martinmas term of academic year 1990-91
to be precise, I attended a Greek translation class led by a man who performed
a kind of semi-striptease during every lesson. I’m sure it was subconsciously
done on his part, but everyone giggled about it, and for the life of me it’s
all I can remember of his class now; the author and the text we were
translating elude me entirely.

He’d start off fully dressed, with either an anorak or an
academic gown as the outer layer, which would last about five minutes. Then off
would come the sports jacket, sometimes there would be a sweater too, the tie
would be loosened, the cuffs unbuttoned, the sleeves rolled up and the
wristwatch unbuckled, and all this would take until about twenty-five past the
hour. Thus unencumbered, he would teach for about ten minutes before reversing
the process, so that by five to he would be fully dressed again and as soon as
the chapel clock began to strike he’d be out the door with never a backward glance.

What made me think of him today after all this time was the
preacher at the Seventh Day Adventist Church this morning taking off his jacket and then his shoes during the sermon. I
didn’t notice what he did with his socks, belt, etc, because I was too far back
to get a clear view. He didn’t have it down to the same fine art as the
Classics chap, but he was gearing up for something a lot more exciting than
just putting everything back on again, because there were to be two baptisms by
total immersion and it was going to involve Pastor Jimmy Botha getting down
into the pool with the initiates. Once he did, he stayed in there for a good
twenty minutes, if not longer—right through the children’s address and a hymn
as well as the dunking—and from where I was sitting he could barely be seen,
but apparently the water was nice and warm so I guess he felt comfortable
enough.

A
few weeks ago, when I attended the Christian Science church, I remarked that it was a denomination unusual in having been founded by a
woman. Well, here’s another one, and of roughly contemporaneous origin. Seventh
Day Adventism is the legacy of Ellen G White, whose visions and voluminous
writings underpin the doctrines of what is now a vastly wealthy worldwide
church. Bearing in mind everything I’ve read online about the cult-like characteristics
of the SDA church, much of it written by disgruntled former members, I have to
say that their website looks straightforwardly Christian enough, and that there
was nothing about today’s service that seemed deviant or sinister. But one
man’s orthodoxy is another man’s heresy.

Worshipping
on a Saturday is one thing that sets them apart, and keeping the true Sabbath
is considered essential to salvation, nor do they defile their bodies with
drugs, alcohol or unclean foods, and the two teenage boys baptised this morning
promised to uphold both these beliefs, among others, as they entered into
their adult lives as church members. They seemed willing enough to take the
step, and good for them. One of them also sang a solo in a rather lovely
baritone voice that he was clearly only just getting used to, and not a hint of
nerves.

There
was lots and lots of singing – no fewer than twenty hymns in all, including the
young lad’s solo, a really rather good a capella quintet and a badly discordant
quartet (a shame, because their hymn was And
can it be that I should gain, one of the few today I’d ever heard before,
and the treble line was woeful). So out of the twenty, there were seventeen
hymns for the congregation to sing, some of which they knew better than others.
The hymn books used were the Seventh Day
Adventist Hymnal and Songs of
Fellowship, and most of the songs fit a genre I’m slightly unsure how to
name—think old-school Gospel Halls or those missionaries you used to see at the
seaside sometimes (do they still do that?) and you’d be on the right track.

We
were told that the sermon would be “technical and theological”. I’ve nothing
SDA to compare it against, but it wasn’t very technical by the standards of
some other denominations I’ve encountered this year, basically describing (with reference to Hebrews 9 and 10 and Jeremiah 31) how
the old, flawed system of temple sacrifices was superseded by the new paradigm
of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice. The take-home point was summed up
thus: “Aren’t you glad that God can forget stuff?” i.e. he forgets about sin.

It
went on a bit. All that singing takes time, of course, and I’m assuming that
they don’t have a baptism every week, but we were hitting the
hour-and-three-quarter mark by the time the service ended. But I’ve sat through
a lot worse and a whole lot longer. And since I’ve observed the “true”
Sabbath this week, I’m giving myself a rare church-free Sunday tomorrow.

2 comments:

Thanks for visiting our church here in Edinburgh. I remember that particular day with the Baptisms and all and you are right it did go on a bit that day because of the Baptisms. I'm glad you wrote an honest appraisal of our church and it was not filled with the usual "cult" "stay away from those guys" mentality. If people like yourself would just come and worship with us then they would get the real picture. God bless you in your quest for truth and peace for your soul.

Thanks for your comment, Patrick. I did enjoy the singing, even though I still can't quite find the right word to describe the genre. I don't think the SDA is for me, but it's clearly thriving in Edinburgh. I wish you well and thanks for your good wishes.